Statement as to rights to inventions made under Federally sponsored research and development:
Not Applicable
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to attachment structures for vehicle accessories and more particularly to a tool box anchor for releasably securing a tool box or cargo box to the bed of a pickup truck.
2. Brief Description of Prior Art
Over the years many accessories have been developed for vehicles such as pickup trucks to give the owner versatility in the way that the owner may utilize the vehicle. For example, tool boxes or storage or cargo boxes have been designed for mounting in the bed of a pickup truck. Such tool boxes that have been developed require the owner to securely mount the accessory to the vehicle.
In response to such accessory, prior art methods for mounting tool boxes or cargo boxes is known in the art. Some tool boxes are permanently installed to the pickup bed. However, such permanently installed tool boxes limit the amount of cargo bed space available for transporting other cargo.
There also exists a number of disclosures for temporarily mounting tool boxes to the bed of the pickup truck. However, these prior art methods are relatively difficult and inconvenient for quick and easy installation and removal of the tool box, and therefore fail to achieve the same level of success as the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,737 to Farmer, Jr., discloses a clamping arrangement which allows a utility box which overlies the side rail of a truck to be clamped to the side walls of a truck box.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,017 to Mullican, discloses a C-clamp like device which clamps to the front wall of a truck box. A simple J-bolt may also be used to hook over the front rail of a truck box.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,684 to Miller, et al., discloses a tool box securable to a pair of parallel laterally spaced apart anchor rails attached to a flat horizontal mounting wall such as the floor of a truck bed, at a distance slightly less than spacing between lateral sides walls of the box, which has an upwardly recessed bottom wall to allow the box to fit over the anchor rails. An elongated arm pivotably mounted to the inner surface of each of the two lateral side walls of the box has fastener pins on the lower end of the arm that may be pivoted into a locking position in slots provided in the upper surface of the anchor rail.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,425 to Hoogland, discloses an arrangement to releasably secure each of the two doors of a utility carrier box mounted transversely behind the cab of a pickup truck and on the side walls of the pickup truck, the arrangement comprising staples secured to the end walls of the box below the hinges of the doors when the doors are in closed position, and a steep strap extending from below one staple over the top of the closed box and down to a point beyond the other staple, and in conformity with the surface of the closed box over which the strap means extends, each end of the strap being slotted to enable the length of the staple beyond which it extends to be passed through the slot and to receive the link of a padlock which is locked.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,200 to Pugh, discloses a pickup truck storage box for use in the cargo bed of a pickup truck. It has left and right edge brackets that receive left and right upstanding box panels; a center stake that fits between inner edges of the box panels to keep the outer edges of the box panel seated in the edge brackets; a channel member that fits over the upper edge of the truck bed""s forward wall; a hinged, locking lid attached to the channel member; a hinged cross-member between the channel member and the upper, inner edges of the box panels; and cap strips that cover the top edges of the box panels.
What is needed is an anchor apparatus for mounting the tool box to the bed of the pickup truck that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, and convenient for quick and easy installation and removal of the tool box from the bed of the pickup truck.
As will be seen from the subsequent description, the preferred embodiments of the present invention overcome these and other short comings of prior art.
The present invention is an apparatus that is a tool box anchor for pickup trucks for releasably securing a tool box to the bed of a pickup truck. Said apparatus of the present invention is convenient for quick and easy installation and removal of the tool box from the bed of the pickup truck. The tool box anchor includes an elongated plate having an upper surface, a lower surface, and an upper clearance, said upper clearance located in the approximate center of the elongated plate. Said elongated plate further including a plate extension downwardly extending from the lower surface of the elongated plate. Said plate extension includes a lower clearance which lower clearance of the plate extension is shaped and sized coincident with the upper clearance of the elongated plate. Said plate extension further having a bore therethrough that extends from the upper clearance to the lower clearance. Said tool anchor further including a support rod, said support rod including a tapered first end and a second end. Said support rod shaped to form an approximate 45 degree angle near the second end. The tapered first end of the support rod including at least one aperture that horizontally extends through the support rod, said at least one aperture designed to receive a locking pin.
In use, the lower base wall of the tool box rests on a top surface of side walls of the pickup truck bed. Said tool box having a tool box clearance up through the lower base wall of the tool box, and said top surface of the side walls having a side wall clearance. The tool box is releasably mounted to the top surface of each of the side walls of the pickup truck bed using the tool anchor of the present invention by positioning the upper clearance of the upper surface of the elongated plate in alignment with the side wall clearance of the side walls. The tapered first end of the support rod extends upwardly through the lower and upper clearances of the plate extension, up through the side wall clearance of the side wall of the pickup truck bed, up through the tool box clearance of the tool box, exposing the tapered first end inside the tool box. The tool box is removably secured to the top surface by preferably first slidably mounting a washer over the support rod, and inserting the locking pin through one of the apertures in the tapered first end of the support rod.